Comic-Con 2009: 24, Fringe, Heroes, True Blood

There were some major TV panels this year at the San Diego Comic Con for various network genre shows. Here’s a breakdown of the big facts garnered from each:

24

* The producers say this will be the most reality-driven season of the show since the first, and the most connected to the previous season of any season they’ve done thus far.

* Jack’s storyline of last season, where he’s getting his life together and trying to be happy, will keep unrolling.

* The general plot has Jack, now happily living with Kim in New York, learning from an underground contact that some plans to assassinate a foreign prime minister during his visit to the United Nations that day.

* Kate Sackhoff’s Dana Walsh character will essentially serve as the new CTU’s Chloe. The original Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) has been on maternity leave and is thus trying to get up to speed on the new systems and not being ‘top dog’ anymore.

* Sackhoff also made it clear that she told the producers she’d take the job so long as she gets to kick some ass and thus will be using a gun at some point in the season.

Fringe

* While much of the first season was them reacting to events happening, this season will be much more proactive with the group actively hunting down elements of the pattern and their connections.

* The conversation between Agent Dunham and William Bell that began at the end of last year’s season finale will be continued in the new season premiere, though not right off the bat.

* Leonard Nimoy’s involvement on the show will be as much as he possibly can be.

* Characters from the alternate dimensions will be crossing over more and will meet their alternative counterparts.

Heroes

A new trailer and the resulting Q&A session revealed the fate of several characters next season, and the resurrection of some familiar faces:

* Robert Knepper plays Samuel, the head of a carnival show where people with abilities have been hiding in plain sight. After his brother dies, he decides to use his influence to change the world. His scheme will affect all the other heroes this season.

* Dawn Olivieri’s character and Samuel combine powers which cause tattoos to appear on her body that predict the future. Ray Park’s character has super speed and gets into a high-speed knife fight with Peter (Milo Ventimiglia).

* Though they share a kiss, Madeline Zima and Hayden Panettiere’s characters won’t have a lesbian relationship according to show creator Tim Kring.

* Matt Parkman is once again a cop and Peter is a paramedic. Nathan is seemingly dead, though will apparently share a body with Sylar who comes back to life.

True Blood

* Showrunner Alan Ball plans to incorporate the werelynx character of Debbie Pelt, Russell Eddington, werewolves and the ‘Mississippi Vampires’ storyline from the novels.

* The Bill/Eric/Sookie love triangle storyline will be incorporated, but the timing has yet to be decided.

* Ball has no plans to incorporate Bubba into the show, a character which is essentially Elvis Presley resurrected as a vampire and left mentally defective due to the process. The reason? It would look goofy (like an Elvis impersonator) and pull one out of the story.

* Ball was adamant there won’t be any half-breed vampire babies on the show.

* A third season is not yet confirmed but Ball seemed pretty certain that it was happening and they’ve plenty of source material from the books to use. Authoer Charlene Harris was there and confirmed that three further books in the series are being worked on.